The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English Part 21

The flush often seen on the cheeks of those who are under the influence of alcoholic liquors, and which is produced by a relaxed and distended condition of the superficial blood vessels, is erroneously supposed by many to merely extend to the parts exposed to view. On this subject, Dr.

Richardson says: "If the lungs could be seen, they, too, would be found with their vessels injected; if the brain and spinal cord could be laid open to view, they would be discovered in the same condition; if the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, or any other vascular organs or parts could be laid open to the eye, the vascular engorgement would be equally manifest. In the lower animals I have been able to witness this extreme vascular condition in the lungs, and once I had the unusual, though unhappy opportunity of observing the same phenomenon in the brain of a man who, in a paroxysm of alcoholic delirium, cast himself under the wheels of a railway carriage. The brain, instantaneously thrown out from the skull by the crash, was before me within three minutes after the accident. It exhaled the odor of spirit most distinctly, and its membranes and minute structures were vascular in the extreme. It looked as if it had been recently injected with vermilion injection. The white matter of the cerebrum, studded with red points, could scarcely be distinguished when it was incised, it was so preternaturally red; and the pia mater, or internal vascular membrane covering the brain, resembled a delicate web of coagulated red blood, so tensely were its fine vessels engorged. This condition extended through both the larger and the smaller brain, cerebrum, and cerebellum, but was not so marked in the medulla, or commencing portion of the spinal cord, as in the other portions.

In course of time, in persons accustomed to alcohol, the vascular changes, temporary only in the novitiate, become confirmed and permanent. The bloom on the nose which characterizes the genial toper is the established sign of alcoholic action on the vascular structure.

Recently, physiological research has served to explain the reason why, under alcohol the heart at first beats so quickly, why the pulse rises, and why the minute blood-vessels become so strongly injected.

At one time it was imagined that alcohol acts immediately upon the heart by stimulating it to increased motion; and from this idea,--false idea, I should say,--of the primary action of alcohol, many erroneous conclusions have been drawn. We have now learned that there exist many chemical bodies which act in the same manner as alcohol, and that their effect is not to stimulate the heart, but to weaken the contractile force of the extreme and minute vessels which the heart fills with blood at each of its strokes. These bodies produce, in fact, a paralysis of the organic nervous supply of the vessels which const.i.tute the minute vascular structures. The minute vessels when paralysed offer inefficient resistance to the force of the heart, and the pulsating organ thus liberated, like the main-spring of a clock from which the resistance has been removed, quickens in action, dilating the feebly resistant vessels, and giving evidence really not of increased, but of wasted power."

The continued use of alcoholic liquors in any considerable quant.i.ty produces irritation and inflammation of the stomach, and structural disease of the liver. Dr. Hammond has shown that alcohol has a special affinity for nervous matter, and is, therefore, found in greater quant.i.ty in the brain and spinal cord than elsewhere in the body. The gray matter of the brain undergoes, to a certain extent, a fatty degeneration, and there is a shrinking of the whole cerebrum, with impairment of the intellectual faculties, muscular tremor, and a shambling gait.

Large doses of alcohol cause a diminution of the temperature of the body, which in fevers is more marked than in the normal state.

In addition to the organic diseases enumerated above, and delirium tremens, the following diseases are frequently the result of the excessive use of alcoholic liquors: epilepsy, paralysis, insanity, diabetes, gravel, and diseases of the heart and blood-vessels.

The physiological deductions of Dr. Richardson are so much in accord with our own that we quote them in full:

"In the first place we gather from the physiological reading of the action of alcohol that the agent is narcotic. I have compared it throughout to chloroform, and the comparison is good in all respects save one, viz.: that alcohol is less fatal than chloroform as an instant destroyer. It kills certainly in its own way, but its method of killing is slow, indirect, and by disease.

The well-proven fact that alcohol, when it is taken into the body, reduces the animal temperature, is full of the most important suggestions. The fact shows that alcohol does not in any sense act as a supplier of vital heat as is commonly supposed, and that it does not prevent the loss of heat as those imagine 'who take just a drop to keep out the cold,' It shows, on the contrary, that cold and alcohol, in their effects on the body, run closely together, an opinion confirmed by the experience of those who live or travel in cold regions of the earth.

The experiences of the Arctic voyagers, of the leaders of the great Napoleonic campaigns in Russia, of the good monks of St. Bernard, all testify that death from cold is accelerated by its ally alcohol.

Experiments with alcohol in extreme cold tell the like story, while the chilliness of the body which succeeds upon even a moderate excess of alcoholic indulgence leads directly to the same indication of truth.

The conclusive evidence now in our possession that alcohol taken into the animal body sets free the heart, so as to cause the excess of motion of which the record has been given above, is proof that the heart, under the frequent influence of alcohol, must undergo deleterious change of structure. It may, indeed, be admitted in proper fairness, that when the heart is pa.s.sing through these rapid movements it is working under less pressure than when its movements are slow and natural; and this allowance must needs be made, or the inference would be that the organ ought to stop at once, in function, by the excess of strain put upon it.

At the same time the excess of motion is injurious to the heart and to the body at large; it subjects the heart to irregularity of supply of blood, it subjects the body in all its parts to the same injurious influence; it weakens, and, as a necessary sequence, degrades both the heart and the body.

Speaking honestly, I cannot, by any argument yet presented to me, admit the alcohols by any sign that should distinguish them from other chemical substances of the paralysing narcotic cla.s.s. When it is physiologically understood that what is called stimulation or excitement is, in absolute fact, a relaxation, a partial paralysis, of one of the most important mechanisms in the animal body, the minute, resisting, compensating circulation, we grasp quickly the error in respect to the action of stimulants in which we have been educated, and obtain a clear solution of the well-known experience that all excitement, all pa.s.sion, leaves, after its departure, lowness of heart, depression of mind, sadness of spirit. We learn, then, in respect to alcohol, that the temporary excitement it produces is at the expense of the animal force, and that the ideas of its being necessary to resort to it, that it may lift up the forces of the animal body into true and firm and even activity, or that it may add something useful to the living tissues, are errors as solemn as they are widely disseminated. In the scientific education of the people no fact is more deserving of special comment than this fact, that excitement is wasted force, the running down of the animal mechanism before it has served out its time of motion.

It will be said that alcohol cheers the weary, and that to take a little wine for the stomach's sake is one of the lessons that comes from the deep recesses of human nature. I am not so obstinate as to deny this argument, There are times in the life of man when the heart is oppressed, when the resistance to its motion is excessive, and when blood flows languidly to the centres of life, nervous and muscular. In these moments alcohol cheers. It lets loose the heart from its oppression; it lets flow a brisker current of blood into the failing organs; it aids nutritive changes, and altogether is of temporary service to man. So far, alcohol may be good, and if its use could be limited to this one action, this one purpose, it would be amongst the most excellent of the gifts of science to mankind. Unhappily, the border line between this use and the abuse of it, the temptation to extend beyond the use, the habit to apply the use when it is not wanted as readily as when it is wanted, overbalance, in the mult.i.tude of men, the temporary value that attaches truly to alcohol as a physiological agent.

Hence alcohol becomes a dangerous instrument even in the hands of the strong and wise, a murderous instrument in the hands of the foolish and weak. Used too frequently, used too excessively, this agent, which in moderation cheers the failing body, relaxes its vessels too extremely; spoils vital organs; makes the force of the circulation slow, imperfect, irregular; suggests the call for more stimulation; tempts to renewal of the evil, and ruins the mechanism of the healthy animal before its hour for ruin, by natural decay, should be at all near.

It is a.s.sumed by most persons that alcohol gives strength, and we hear feeble persons saying daily that they are being 'kept up by stimulants.'

This means actually that they are being kept down; but the sensation they derive from the immediate action of the stimulant deceives them and leads them to attribute pa.s.sing good to what, in the large majority of cases, is persistent evil. The evidence is all-perfect that alcohol gives no potential power to brain or muscle. During the first stage of action it may enable a wearied or a feeble organism to do brisk work for a short time; it may make the mind briefly brilliant; it may excite muscle to quick action, but it does nothing substantially, and fills up nothing it has destroyed, as it leads to destruction. A fire makes a brilliant sight, but leaves a desolation. It is the same with alcohol.

On the muscular force the very slightest excess of alcoholic influence is injurious. I find by measuring the power of muscle for contraction in the natural state and under alcohol, that so soon as there is a distinct indication of muscular disturbance, there is also indication of muscular failure, and if I wished by scientific experiment to spoil for work the most perfect specimen of a working animal, say a horse, without inflicting mechanical injury, I could choose no better agent for the purpose of the experiment than alcohol. But alas! the readiness with which strong, well-built men slip into general paralysis under the continued influence of this false support, attests how unnecessary it would be to subject a lower animal to the experiment. The experiment is a custom, and man is the subject.

The true place of alcohol is clear; it is an agreeable temporary shroud.

The savage, with the mansions of his soul unfurnished, buries his restless energy under its shadow. The civilized man overburdened with mental labor, or with engrossing care, seeks the same shade; but it is shade, after all, in which, in exact proportion as he seeks it, the seeker retires from perfect natural life. To search for force in alcohol is, to my mind, equivalent to the act of seeking for the sun in subterranean gloom until all is night.

It may be urged that men take alcohol, nevertheless, take it freely, and yet live; that the adult Swede drinks his average cup of twenty-five gallons of alcohol per year and remains on the face of the earth. I admit force even in this argument, for I know under the persistent use of alcohol there is a limited provision for the continuance of life. In the confirmed alcoholic the alcohol is, in a certain sense, so disposed of that it fits, as it were, the body for a long season, nay, becomes part of it; and yet it is silently doing its fatal work. The organs of the body may be slowly brought into a state of adaptation to receive it and to dispose of it. But in that very preparation they are themselves made to undergo physical changes tending to the destruction of their function, to perversion of their structure, and to all those varied modifications of organic parts which the dissector of the human subject learns to recognize,--almost without concern, and certainly without anything more than commonplace curiosity,--as the devastations incident to alcoholic indulgence."

The statistics collected from the census of the United States for 1860, and given by Dr. De Marmon, in the _New York Medical Journal_ for December, 1870, must carry conviction to all minds of the correctness of the foregoing deductions:

"For the last ten years the use of spirits has, 1. Imposed on the nation a direct expense of 600,000,000 dollars. 2. Has caused an indirect expense of 600,000,000 dollars. 3. Has destroyed 300,000 lives. 4. Has sent 100,000 children to the poorhouses. 5. Has committed at least 150,000 people into prisons and workhouses. 6. Has made at least 1,000 insane. 7. Has determined at least 2,000 suicides. 8. Has caused the loss by fire or violence, of at least 10,000,000 dollars' worth of property. 9. Has made 200,000 widows and 1,000 orphans."

If these were the statistics twenty-four years ago, with our greatly increased population, what must they be to-day? We will let the reader draw his own conclusions.

MALTED LIQUORS. Under this head are included all those liquors into the composition of which malt enters, such as beer, ale, and porter. The proportion of alcohol in these liquors varies greatly. In beer, it is from two to five per cent.; in Edinburgh ale, it amounts to six per cent.; in porter, it is usually from four to six per cent. In addition to alcohol and water, the malted liquors contain from five to fourteen per cent. of the extract of malt, and from 0.16 to 0.60 per cent. of carbonic acid. They possess, according to Pereira, three properties: they quench thirst; they stimulate, cheer, and, if taken in sufficient quant.i.ty, intoxicate; and they nourish or strengthen. The first of these qualities is due to the water entering into their composition; the second, to the alcohol; the third is attributed the nutritive principles of the malt.

OBJECTIONS TO THEIR USE AS BEVERAGES. These articles are either pure or adulterated. In their pure state the objection to their use for this purpose lies in the fact that they contain alcohol. This, as we have seen, is a poisonous substance, which the human system in a state of health does not need. Its use, when the body is in a normal condition, is uncalled for, and can only be deleterious. Beverages containing this poison are more or less deleterious to healthy persons, according to the amount of it which they contain.

These liquors are frequently adulterated, and this increases their injurious effects. The ingenuity of man has been taxed to increase their intoxicating properties; to heighten the color and flavor, to create pungency and thirst; and to revive old beer. To increase the intoxicating power, tobacco or the seeds of the Cocculus indicus are added; to heighten the color and flavor, burnt sugar, liquorice, or treacle, qua.s.sia, or strychnine, coriander, and caraway seeds are employed; to increase the pungency, cayenne pepper or common salt is added; to revive old beer, or ale, it is shaken up with green vitriol or sulphate of iron, or with alum and common salt.

FERMENTED LIQUORS. These are cider and wine. Cider contains alcohol to the amount of from five to ten per cent., saccharine matter, lactic acid, and other substances. New cider may be drunk in large quant.i.ties without inducing intoxication, but old cider is quite as intoxicating as ale or porter.

The composition of wine is very complex, the peculiar qualities which characterize the different varieties cannot be ascertained by chemical a.n.a.lysis. Wine is a solution of alcohol in water, combined with various const.i.tuents of the grape. The amount of alcohol in wines ranges from six to forty per cent. As beverages, these are open to the same objections as those manufactured from malt. As a medicine, wine is a useful remedy. Concerning its use in this capacity, Prof. Liebig says: "Wine is a restorative. As a means of refreshment when the powers of life are exhausted--as a means of compensation where a misappropriation occurs in nutrition, and as a means of protection against transient organic disturbances, it is surpa.s.sed by no product of nature or art."

That an article is useful in medicine, however, is no reason why it should be used as a beverage by those in health. It is rather an argument against such a practice. For it is generally true that the drugs used to restore the diseased system to health, are pernicious or poisonous to it when in a normal condition.

DISTILLED LIQUORS. These are whiskey, brandy, and the kindred productions of the still. Whiskey is a solution of alcohol in water, mixed with various other principles which impart to it peculiar physical properties. The amount of alcohol which it contains varies from forty-eight to fifty-six per cent. Old whiskey is more highly prized than the more recent product of the still, from the fact that when kept for some years certain volatile oils are generated which, impart to it a mellowness of flavor.

Brandy is a solution of alcohol in water, together with various other substances. It contains from fifty to fifty-six per cent. of alcohol.

Pure brandy is distilled from wine, 1,000 gallons of wine yielding from 100 to 150 gallons of brandy, but a very large proportion of the brandy is made with little or no wine. It is made artificially from high wines by the addition of oil of Cognac, to give it flavor, burnt sugar to give it color, and logwood or catechu, to impart astringency and roughness of taste. The best brandy is obtained by distillation from the best quality of white wines, from the districts of Cognac and Armagnac in France.

THE CLOTHING.

There is no physical agent which exerts a more constant or more powerful influence upon health and life, than the atmosphere. The climate in these lat.i.tudes is exceedingly variable, ranging all the way from 110 Fahr. in summer to 40 below zero in the winter season. The body of every individual should be so protected from cold, that it can maintain a mean temperature of 98 Fahr.

When the body is warm there is a free and equal circulation of the blood throughout all the structures. When the surface is subjected to cold, the numerous capillaries and minute vessels carrying the blood, contract and diminish in size, increasing the amount of this fluid in the internal organs, thus causing congestion. The blood must go somewhere, and if driven from the surface, it retreats to the cavities within.

Hence this repletion of the vital organs causes pain from pressure and fullness of the distended blood-vessels, and the organic functions are embarra.s.sed. Besides, cold upon the surface shuts up the pores of the skin, which are among the most active and important excretory ducts of the system. It is evident, then, that we require suitable clothing, not only for comfort, but to maintain the temperature and functions essential to health and life.

The chief object to be attained by dress is the maintenance of a uniform temperature of the body. To attain this end, it is necessary that the exhalations of the system, which are continually escaping through the pores of the skin, should be absorbed or conducted away from the person.

These exudations occur in the form of sensible or insensible perspiration, and the clothing, to be healthy, should be so porous as to allow them freely to escape into the air.

A substance should also be chosen which is known to be a poor conductor of heat. That generated by the system will thus be retained where it is needed, instead of being dispersed into the atmosphere.

We might add that the better the material for accomplishing these purposes, the less will be needed to be worn; for we do not wish to wear or carry about with us any more material than is necessary. It so happens that all of these qualities are found combined in _flannel_. The value of this article worn next to the skin cannot be over-rated, for while it affords protection from cold during the winter months, it is equally beneficial during the heat of summer, because it imbibes the perspiration, and being very porous, allows it to escape. The skin always feels soft, smooth, and pliable, when it is worn; but, when cotton takes its place, it soon becomes dry and harsh. Its natural adaptability to these purposes, shows that it is equally a comfort and a source of health. Where the skin is very delicate, flannel sometimes causes irritation. In such cases a thin fabric of linen, cotton, or silk, should be worn next the skin, with flannel immediately over it.

Where there is a uniform and extreme degree of heat, cotton and linen are very conducive to comfort. But they are unsuitable in a climate or season liable to sudden fluctuations in temperature.

The value of furs, where people are exposed to extreme cold, cannot be overestimated. They are much warmer than wool, and are chiefly used as wraps on going outdoors. They are too c.u.mbrous and expensive for ordinary wear in this lat.i.tude, but in places near the poles they const.i.tute the chief clothing of the inhabitants.

The quant.i.ty of clothing worn is another important item. The least that is necessary to keep the body well protected and evenly tempered when employed is the rule of health. Some people, instead of wearing flannels next to the body, put on other material in greater abundance, thus confining the perspiration to the skin and making the body chilly. The amount of clothing is then increased, until they are so heavily clad that they cannot exercise. It is far better to wear one thickness of flannel next to the skin, and then cotton, or woolen, for outside garments, and be able to exercise, thus allowing the blood to circulate and to a.s.sist in the warming process.

One great fault in dress consists in neglecting to properly clothe the upper extremities. Some people do not reflect upon the necessity, while others are too proud to be directed by plain common sense. In the winter season, the feet should be covered with woolen stockings. The next matter of importance, is to get a thick, broad-soled shoe, so large that it will not prevent the free circulation of the blood. Then for walking, and especially for riding, when the earth is wet and cold, or when there is snow on the ground, wear a flannel-lined rubber or "Arctic"

over-shoe. _Be sure and keep the feet comfortable and warm at all times._

Our next advice is to keep the legs warm. We were called not long ago, to see a young lady who had contracted a severe cold. She had been to an entertainment where the apartments were nicely warmed, and from thence had walked home late in the evening. We inquired into the circ.u.mstances of the case, and ascertained that she wore flannel about her chest, and that she also wore rubbers over her shoes, but the other portions of the lower extremities were protected by cotton coverings. In short, her legs were not kept warm, and she took cold by going out from warm rooms into a chilly atmosphere. A good pair of woolen leggings might have saved her much suffering. The results of insufficient protection of the lower extremities are colds, coughs, consumption, headaches, pain in the side, menstrual derangements, uterine congestion and disorders, besides disablement for the ordinary and necessary duties of life. All these may be prevented by clothing the legs suitably, and wearing comfortable flannels.

Young people can bear a low temperature of the body better than old people, because they possess greater power of endurance. But that is no reason for unnecessary exposure.

The amount of clothing should be regulated according to the heat-generating power of the individual, and also according to the susceptibility to cold. No two persons are exactly alike in these respects. But it is never proper for young people to reject the counsels of experience, or treat lightly the advice to protect themselves thoroughly against the cold. Many a parent's heart has ached as he has followed the mortal remains of a darling child to the grave, knowing that if good advice had been heeded, in all human probability, the life would have been prolonged.

The most deleterious mechanical errors in clothing are those which affect the chest and body. Tight lacing still plays too important a part in dress. It interferes with the free and healthy movements of the body, and effects a pressure which is alike injurious to the organs of respiration, circulation, and digestion. The great muscle of respiration, the diaphragm, is impeded in its motion, and is, therefore, unable to act freely. The large blood-vessels are compressed, and when the pressure is excessive the heart and lungs are also subjected to restraint and thrown out of their proper positions. From the compression of the liver and stomach, the functions of digestion are impeded, a distaste for solid food, flatulency and pain after eating are the unmistakable proofs of the injury which is being inflicted.

The evil effects of such pressure are not confined to actual periods of time during which this pressure is applied. They continue after it has been removed and when the chest and trunk of the body have thus been subjected to long-continued pressure they become permanently deformed.

These deformities necessarily entail great suffering in child-bearing.

The evil effects of mechanical pressure on other parts of the body are not uncommon. The leg is sometimes so indented by a tight garter that the returning flow of blood through the veins is prevented, and a varicose condition of these vessels is produced.